A DEAD SECRET
YUKI-ONNA
THE STORY OF AOYAGI
JIU-ROKU-ZAKURA
THE DREAM OF AKINOSUKE
RIKI-BAKA
HI-MAWARI
HORAI

INSECT STUDIES
BUTTERFLIES
MOSQUITOES
ANTS


INTRODUCTION



The publication of a new volume of Lafcadio Hearn's exquisite studies of
Japan happens, by a delicate irony, to fall in the very month when the
world is waiting with tense expectation for news of the latest exploits of
Japanese battleships. Whatever the outcome of the present struggle between
Russia and Japan, its significance lies in the fact that a nation of the
East, equipped with Western weapons and girding itself with Western energy
of will, is deliberately measuring strength against one of the great powers
of the Occident. No one is wise enough to forecast the results of such a
conflict upon the civilization of the world. The best one can do is to
estimate, as intelligently as possible, the national characteristics of the
peoples engaged, basing one's hopes and fears upon the psychology of the